Portland, Oregon, to pay $3.75M to estate of unarmed man fatally shot by police

PORTLAND, Ore. (AP) — The city of Portland, Oregon, is set to pay $3.75 million to the estate of an unarmed man who was shot and killed by police in 2022 after being mistaken for an armed robbery suspect.

The city settled with Immanueal Clark’s estate, which had filed a wrongful-death lawsuit last year, Oregon Public Broadcasting reported. An officer mistook the 30-year-old as someone involved in an armed robbery earlier in the evening and shot him in the back as he fled from a police stop in November 2022.

The news outlet, citing a database maintained by the advocacy group Portland Copwatch, reported it was the largest settlement on record paid by the city to an individual plaintiff.

City councilors unanimously approved the settlement on Thursday after a meeting in which they questioned disagreement within the police department over whether the shooting was proper. An internal affairs investigator had found the officer who shot Clark violated bureau policy; the city’s Police Review Board, which includes four members from the police department, two community members and an independent city staffer, voted 4-3 that the shooting was within policy, OPB reported.

Police Chief Bob Day told councilors that while he was angered by Clark’s death, it was his final decision to deem the shooting appropriate as he believed Officer Chris Sathoff acted reasonably according to the facts available at the time, OPB reported.

A grand jury cleared Sathoff of criminal wrongdoing in 2023.

The night of the shooting, a 911 caller told dispatchers he had been robbed at gunpoint in the parking lot of a fast-food restaurant by men who were “definitely white.” Officers mistook Clark’s sedan as being involved in the robbery, and when they approached it in a church parking lot, Clark, who was Black, fled on foot.

In grand jury testimony, Sathoff said Clark had been “digging his pockets” as he ran away and that he thought Clark may have a gun. He fired three bullets from an AR-15 rifle.

Councilor Loretta Smith said the shooting highlighted discrepancies in how Black and white Portlanders are treated by police.

“We did know the description of the robbers — and the robbers were white. And Manny is clearly Black,” Smith said.

Day said the police department had made changes since the shooting, including how it trains officers to use rifles, OPB reported.